In New York, U.S./China trade optimism bolstered markets, with the Dow higher by 138 points and the Nasdaq jumping 57 points.

The Nasdaq climbed 0.7 percent despite the struggles of one of its influential FANG stocks.

Facebook was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, causing its stock to fall 2.4 percent.

The social media is reeling with the surprise departure of its chief product officer, Chris Cox, after 13 years with the company. The company is also under scrutiny after video footage of the deadly shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand was live-streamed on Facebook by the gunman.

Gold surged $7.10 to $1,302 an ounce while it was a flat day for the Canadian dollar, with the loonie losing 5/100ths of a cent to $0.7493 US.